Saw a Black Bear Yesterday

[JP]

Not a bid deal for you people in places that have these things all over the place. Connecticut never had them before until recent years; Our Department of Environmental Protection estimates we now have approximately 300 resident Black Bear. We also are seeing a small Moose population begin to emerge. There's a law in Connecticut that if you hit a deer with your car, it's yours if you want it. This year they added the black bear and moose to that law. There is no hunting season on black bear or moose here in Connecticut because the numbers are so small. Right now it is illegal to hunt either of them. I just welcome the fact that we're having these animals call Connecticut home, more things I get to take pics of And, since it's illegal to hunt the bear and moose, their body size will become massive. So, when the day comes when hunting is allowed for them, there will be some happy hunters out there.

So, yesterday I'm heading up to a friends to do some wheelin' and I come around the corner and begin to hit a nice straight away where people fly on. I noticed cars stopped on both sides of the street and I thought it would be a good idea to start taking my foot off the floor. My first thoughts were being such a nice day, somebody hit a motorcyclist. As I got a little closer, I saw the black bear sitting next to a telephone pole. Sitting there just off the road, in some grass, watching these nutty metallic things stopping all around him. He wasn't small at all, his head was pretty big. Now, since I have a trailer in tow there is no place for me to pull over due to the cars on the shoulder. I grab my camera and decide to snap a shot of this bear out of the passenger side window as I drive by. I cannot stay parked in the middle of the state road. Of course the camera feels like it takes forever to turn on and when it does I screwed up anyway and missed the shot as I was approaching the bear. He just lay down in the grass and began licking the green stuff as he was basking in the 80-degree weather. As I began to pass where he was lying, I guess he didn't like the sound of the diesel engine and got up and meandered back into the woods, only to lie down again. I was the killjoy and the cars began to leave, MF'n me as they left I

[RugerShooter]

Thats cool

[JP]

I just wish I got him out in the open

[Mtnman1830]

Thats a pretty big foot print. Cool!

[Rev. Coyote]

Way cool JP! My wife and I saw a momma and two cubs (black bear) about three weeks ago hiking in the Shenandoah NP at Blackrock Mt.

[sparker1]

Good job, JP. It's always a thrill to encounter such an animal.

[fourtycal]

Very nice. There is supposed to be quite a few in southeast Utah on the blues and elk ridge but I have never seen anything more than pictures.

[accadacca]

Thats a pretty good sized barrrrr. . .

[Rev. Coyote]

Very nice. There is supposed to be quite a few in southeast Utah on the blues and elk ridge but I have never seen anything more than pictures.

I've seen them in the La Sals. Lots of pikas, too.

[Joe Gardner]

Cool! I have only seen one bear in the wild, it was just above santaquin canyon on the north slope of Mt Nebo. I asked a few locals about bears and more then one said they are very common in the area.

[JP]

Good job, JP. It's always a thrill to encounter such an animal.

The damn zoom is broke on my throw around one and the new one is on its way